The benevolent Queen Anne of England formed the design for the protection of her transatlantic frontier by establishing new settlements for displaced Lutheran and Protestant families of the German Palatine who were allies in King William's War 1684-97 ( England, Holland & Germany ) "the Grand Alliance" and Queen Anne's War "the Spanish Succession" 1700-13 against Louis XIV King of France ( Roman Catholic Church ).

... She sent 10 ships to New York and promised to settle them in the Schoharie Valley on land offered by the Mohawk Indians.

June 14th, 1710:

2,600 Palatines, driven from their homes by the ravages of two wars and religious persecution ( the Palatinate is along the Rhine river ), arrived at Nutten Island ( Governors Island ).

Huts were constructed and after a period of quarantine, they moved up the Hudson River valley 100 miles to seven camps.

More info: http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyschoha/palatinetime.html

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My Great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Conrad Weiser, and his family were among the first arrivals on Governors Island.

From an account of the voyage to the colonies:
Early in the morning on June 13, 1710, the ship LYON (of Leith, Captain Stevens commander) drew into New York harbor with an escort, H.M.S. On board the LYON were 402 "poor Patines, among them thirteen year old Conrad Weiser" (whom Count Zinzendorf in good time was to style the Emperor of the the Iriquois) with his father and seven brothers and sisters.

It was good to see land: the sands, the Fort, the Battery outside its walls, the neat rows of houses, with rock, mountain, and forest in the back ground. It was better yet to feel solid ground underfoot when they disembarked at Nutten Island, now called Governors Island. Conrad had been on board since Christmas: some five months in English waters, where the LYON and nine other ships of the convoy had puttered about between London and Plymouth awaiting final orders; and seven or eight weeks on the ocean where Conrad lay sick and bewildered in the midst of tossing death.

The passengers were packed tightly below decks, amid smells, darkness, and vermin, with a subsistence allowance of sixpence a day per head. Poor food and bad water prepared the way for typhus, the "Palentine fever". The little children died, almost all of them, and a great number of their elders. Some two hundred souls were lost, a third of the passenger list. The ship's doctor, Thomas Benson, tells us that he "administered aid and Medicines, to about 330 p'sons which have all been sick at one time in the said passage and none but himself to assist them: during all the said time..."

Years later, after Conrad had become famous throughout the colonies, he wrote down for his children what he knew about his own early life. "I was little enough. The uprooting had been commplete, and the voyage from Plymouth to New York had interposed a dark barrier to recollection." His real life began on that Tuesday morning in mid-June of 1710...

Governors Island opens to the public this Saturday and the ferry rides to the 172-acre spread are free (http://www.govisland.com/Visit_the_Island/directions.asp) from Manhattan. The island will be open every weekend through Oct. 5, and will have space for bike riding as well as will host art festivals and concerts.

Governors Island will be open to the public every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from May 31st through October 5th. Enjoy bike riding, picnicking, concerts, art festivals, and more. The entire 92 acre National Historic District will be open to the public. The Island is open from 10 AM to 5 PM on Fridays, and from 10 AM to 7 PM on Saturdays and Sundays. The ferry ride and admission to the Island are FREE!

Governors Island has partnered with dozens of organizations to bring an unprecedented number of concerts, activities, programs, festivals, and more to the Island. For a full schedule of events, click here (http://www.govisland.com/Visit_the_Island/default.asp). For a ferry schedule, click here (http://www.govisland.com/Visit_the_Island/directions.asp).

Governors Island will be the site of future educational, non-profit and commercial facilities, as well as world-class open space. An acclaimed team, led by West 8, has been chosen to design the new Governors Island Park and Great Promenade. To learn about their ideas for these new open spaces, click here (http://www.park-centeroftheworld.org/).

To share your ideas about the future park, visit the “What’s Happening on Governors Island” exhibit on the Island, or leave your email address so we can keep you updated about the Island and its future.

Governors Island is pleased to welcome tens of thousands of visitors to the Island over the next four months. We hope to see you on the Island!

http://www.govisland.com/

NYC4Life

September 12th, 2008, 05:46 PM

NY1

09/12/2008 09:15 AM

Governor's Island Sees Spike In Visitors

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/6350/24663643tg4.jpg

City officials say the number of visitors to Governor's Island doubled this year.

More than 100,000 people have taken the ferry trip across New York Harbor since it opened for the summer on May 31st.

The island's been promoted through a number of programs and activities, including free bikes on Fridays, miniature golf, and public art exhibitions.
The island remains open to the public through October 12th.

brianac

September 15th, 2008, 06:18 AM

Modern-Day Explorers Discovering Governors Island

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/09/15/nyregion/15governors.xlarge1.jpg Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times
The island, long off limits, is becoming popular for its monuments and eclectic events.

The population of Governors Island was 3,400 in 1990. Back then, the 172-acre island, in the middle of New York Harbor 800 yards off the tip of Manhattan, served as a Coast Guard base, off limits to most New Yorkers.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/09/15/nyregion/15gov.large3.jpgHiroko Masuike for The New York Times
Michael Arenella’s orchestra jammed on Saturday.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/09/15/nyregion/15gov.large2.jpgHiroko Masuike for The New York Times
Naomi Freedman and Lior Shmuelof biked on Governors Island

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/09/15/nyregion/15gov.large4.jpgHiroko Masuike for The New York Times
Visitors kicked up their heels at a Jazz Age Lawn Party.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/09/15/nyregion/15gov.large5.jpgHiroko Masuike for The New York Times
Transportation awaited those who wanted to explore the island with the Manhattan skyline in the distance.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/09/15/nyregion/15gov.large6.jpgHiroko Masuike for The New York Times
Governors Island is experiencing a rebirth as a weekend destination. On Saturday, visitors found picnic-perfect spots.

On Saturday, more than 2,500 people visited the island, roaming freely for the most part, and conducting a more casual sort of operation.

Couples pedaled bicycles on the rim of the island, with views of the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Lower Manhattan skyline.

Children swung their clubs for holes in one on a rooftop called “Putter on the Roof,” part of a miniature golf (http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/golf/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier) course designed by artists. People tossed Frisbees, relaxed on the grass and took Charleston dance lessons dressed as 1920s flappers, all in the shadow of stately red-brick barracks, now abandoned.

“It’s got to be one of the best-kept secrets in New York,” said Greg Ivan Smith, 38, a filmmaker from Sunnyside, Queens, enjoying a picnic of tapenade and bruschetta with friends and neighbors on Saturday afternoon. “You feel like you’re on a New England college campus.”

Thousands of New Yorkers have been discovering the island’s secrets in recent years, as it experiences a rebirth as a weekend getaway. The island draws bicyclists, kayakers, fishermen, concertgoers, art (http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/art/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier) lovers, history buffs, musicians and urban explorers of all ages.

It is a place rich with history and surprises: Over here are the cannons at Fort Jay that date to the Civil War, and over there, the Coast Guard may be gone but its blue street signs remain. The island has changed hands numerous times over the centuries, from the American Indians to the Dutch to the British to the Americans. It was a United States Army (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/us_army/index.html?inline=nyt-org) command headquarters and supply base in World War I and World War II.

In 1966, the Army departed and the Coast Guard took over. And in 1996, the Guard, too, left.

In 2003, the federal government sold the island to New York for $1, a deal that some said was even better than the one Dutch settlers got in 1637, when they bought it from the Indians for two ax heads, a string of beads and some iron nails. Since then, officials from two agencies have been trying to raise the island’s profile: the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation, a city-state partnership that runs much of the island; and the National Park Service (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_park_service/index.html?inline=nyt-org), which operates 22 acres, including Fort Jay and Castle Williams, part of the Governors Island National Monument.

The number of visitors to the island has risen by the tens of thousands. So far this year, more than 100,000 people have visited, up from 56,000 in 2007 and 26,000 in 2006, according to the preservation corporation, which also provided Saturday’s count. On a Saturday in July, when the island played host to a festival celebrating the city’s waterfront and waterways, there were 7,200 visitors, about the same number of people as on a summer day at the more widely known Ellis Island.

“For several weekends this summer, we had more visitors in one three-day weekend than the entire summer in 2005,” said Leslie Koch, the president of the preservation corporation. “We’re trying to bring the island back to life and reconnect it with New York.”

Some of the reasons for the island’s growing popularity are its wildly diverse and eclectic events. One day in June, punk-rock bands and their tattooed and pierced fans shared the island with families attending Army Heritage Weekend festivities.

On Saturday, Michael Arenella and His Dreamland Orchestra put on a Jazz Age Lawn Party, where visitors took in the sights and sounds. Among them were Nanette McNamara and her husband, Richard, who sat at an elaborately decorated picnic table (the flowers in the coffee-can vase were fake, but the grapes in the bowl were real). The couple are from eastern Long Island, and Mrs. McNamara said she was happy that Governors Island was being discovered by so many people, but she hoped it did not become too popular.

“It’s kind of nice to have this whole big island to yourself,” she said. “It’s peaceful.”

Governors Island may be in New York City, but it is not of New York City.
Walking past the old, empty yellow houses that once served as officers’ quarters, or listening to the waves splashing against the rocks at the edge of the seawall fence, it is easy to forget you are within a mile of Wall Street. There is no subway line here, and except for staff vehicles, Fire Department trucks and an electric tram that provides tours, there are no cars. In one of the most expensive cities in the world, the island is that rare thing: cheap. The ferry ride, the admission and the tram tours are free, and bicycle rentals are free on Fridays for up to an hour.

Signs of the bustling city remain: There are fire hydrants and juice vending machines.

And even more change is coming. In July, the preservation corporation announced it was seeking proposals for an entertainment and dining operation and for art studios and exhibition space on the island. Last year, officials selected a team of architects to design a 40-acre park, a project financed by the city and state. It is expected to be completed by 2012.

But among the red oaks, Siberian elms and green expanses, there is the solitude of a place that Giovanni da Verrazano, the first European to sail into New York Harbor, beheld in 1524.

Alain Jacquot, 43, came to the island on Saturday from Park Slope, Brooklyn, with his wife and 7-year-old twin boys. They played miniature golf on a nine-hole course that is part of Figment, an annual nonprofit arts event. “I’ve lived in the city for 12 years, and this is the first time I’ve been here,” Mr. Jacquot said, proof, perhaps, that the discovery of new worlds, though on a far smaller scale, continues today.